Star Gate

Chapter 404: A Bustling Ash Mountain (I)

Secret arts were valuable and not typically taught to outsiders. But as an amateur, Li Heng might be willing to trade the secret art for some other benefits. If Weeping Willow was still alive, Li Hao would naturally not go through Li Heng. He would go to the source—such were the rules of the martial world. But since Li Heng was the last of his discipline... then there wasn’t much of a problem with that.

Li Hao set the matter aside. His most pressing concern was understanding the water aura. Once the water aura formed, he would have the foundation to stand against Novas!

“So long as my strength builds by the day, all of the information you hold will be outdated!” Li Hao looked into the distance. Even with rocks blocking the view, he could sense that there were Novas looking for him.

Let’s see who hunts who in the end! I’m almost to the point of sensing the last step of the Nine Forged Force. When my water aura forms, I’ll seek you out if you haven’t found me yet. I need so many more mysterious power stones. Novas should have a lot of them, right?

Li Hao smiled as he looked at the martial masters in his team. There were now numerous mid Sunderers among the Demon Hunters; initial Sunderers were the minority. There were also many late Sunderers. He could even sense that there were a few who could grasp the aura by themselves.

Indeed, battles of life and death were the best opportunities for martial masters to attain new enlightenment. No wonder martial masters loved to fight and were headstrong. They lived to spar or engage in battles to the death.

If the team could gain a few more Dominators and if Liu Long could set one foot into Summoner, then the Demon Hunters would be able to kill Solars next. They were improving so fast that Li Hao felt the Demon Hunters would soon be known throughout the land!

......

The team rested sufficiently after a day in the mountain cave. They absorbed an appropriate amount of mysterious power, ate some rations, drank some water, and recovered their vitality. On a whole, they were noticeably stronger than before. But to Li Hao, this wasn’t enough.

There was no hurry, however.

Once everyone became a Dominator, he would have fifty Dominators supplying internal force to him if he was the center of the formation. They would be an entirely different sight to what they were now. And if that was out of reach, then fifty Sunderers were still of enormous help to him in a formation. It just wouldn’t be much of an improvement over current circumstances, so he was not so inclined toward that possibility.

“Finish your preparations, everyone. We’ll set off in a moment!” Li Hao announced.

The group started packing up, but there wasn’t much to put away. All they needed to do was to erase the traces they’d left behind. They were soon finished; Li Hao rolled back the stone at the mountain cave and walked out. He looked around the area and furrowed his brows.

Jumping upward, he vanished and reappeared on a small peak not too far away. There was a creature that looked like a panther in front of him. It turned to look at Li Hao before bounding off.

The young man’s frown deepened. He’d seen a small ball of light just now—very faint—and had thought it was a supernatural. But it wasn’t, it was a panther.

A panther spirit?

He knew that there were a few wild beasts in the central region that had become animal spirits—the monster spirits that everyone spoke of. There were almost none in Silver Moon, other than Panther who’d become a dog spirit. It was said that powerful monster spirits in the central region could devour Novas.

Li Hao had never considered the issue prior to today, yet he’d discovered a panther about to become a spirit as soon as he entered Ash Mountain. This was only the outer fringe!

He looked sternly into the depths. Would there be large monster spirits in the mountains? He’d come to Ash Mountain because the terrain was perilous and thickly forested, making it good for concealment. He wasn’t here with a death wish.

It was fine if they were supernatural monster spirits, he could see those. But... what if they were martial dao monster spirits? Did those exist?

Possibly. Wasn’t the little black dog a martial dao monster spirit? They’d be in trouble if they ran into those. Ash Mountain was too big, who knew if big monster spirits like those of the central region would appear here? While he’d yet to hear of any, the north may hold some if the central region already had them.

Perhaps those things like to stay in the mountains and were too lazy to go out. Li Hao silently watched the panther run away and didn’t make a move. It would be bad to raise attention from a bigger monster spirit if he beat the younger one up. The situation was unclear and he wasn’t prepared to move against these creatures yet, lest it brought greater trouble.

......

Li Hao returned to the mountain cave after a while. “Everyone, be careful. Some wild beasts in Ash Mountain seem to have become monster spirits.” His words caused a small disturbance and Hong Qing quickly walked over.

“Leader,” she whispered. “My dad once said that some monster spirits appeared when the supernatural first rose. The supernatural domain turned even some of the domesticated animals. Monster spirits can be found everywhere to varying degrees. But I’ve also heard that there are no monster spirits in Silver Moon...”

Li Hao blinked. No monster spirits in the province? Why?

True, other than Panther, he’d met no other monster spirits in the province. Were they out of Silver Moon’s boundaries now?

Hong Qing didn’t know the particulars, she’d only heard her father mention it before. “My dad says that Silver Moon is a bit unique. Monster spirits naturally shy away from Silver Moon and the province’s native creatures have a difficult time of becoming spirits. They can’t absorb enough mysterious power. Silver Moon is a land barren of mysterious power, which makes for few supernaturals as well. We have to borrow from external sources, such as mysterious power stones and origin weapons, to receive sufficient energy.

“In some places in the central region, one can absorb mysterious power simply through cultivating. Silver Moon seems to have become more destitute over the past twenty years.”

Li Hao blinked. No one had mentioned this to him before. This meant that Silver Moon was not suited for supernaturals to train in. The supernaturals born here were converted through either the three great organizations or Night Watchers. An induction process was needed, apart from the Heaven Favored and those who were accidentally subjected to enough mysterious power to cross over.

There didn’t seem to be any who’d naturally broken through to the supernatural over the course of cultivation.

“Do you mean that there are those in the central region who can train and become supernaturals on their own?”

“Yes, don’t you know that, leader?” Hong Qing looked curiously at Li Hao. Wasn’t this common knowledge?

The young man stayed quiet. He didn’t know. No one had mentioned it before, possibly because they thought he already knew. But what could a country bumpkin from Silver City possibly know, apart from the secrets that Yuan Shuo himself had mentioned before? Li Hao had run off from White Moon a few days after arriving there. Meanwhile, Southern Fist and the others wouldn’t think much of this, so they naturally wouldn’t tell him.

In that case, supernaturals were easily born in the central region and mysterious power filled the air. The same should go for Silver Moon, but reality proved to be otherwise. If a Solar like Hao Lianchuan didn’t consume any energy and spent a few months training and accumulating, he might be able to produce almost one hundred cubes.

However, was there a point to a Solar accumulating several hundred cubes a year without expending any of it?

“I see!” Li Hao suddenly understood.

It was as difficult as scaling the heavens for Silver Moon denizens to become supernatural, not to mention that these wild beasts didn’t have any intelligence. They could only rely on naturally deriving mysterious power to become monster spirits. There wasn’t enough energy to go around for humans, much less wild beasts.

That there were plenty of monster spirits in other areas was due to bountiful energy in the air. Although it didn’t reach the stage of being found everywhere, a wild beast could partake some if they were lucky enough.

The same did not hold true for Silver Moon. Why?

Southern Fist had said that the province was a very ancient place, that every blade of grass here might contain the echoes of great dao from the ancient civilization. It was the center of the world back then, so why was there so little mysterious power here?

The Silver Armor had said there was no future for the path of energy—it meant the supernaturals. Did this mean that Silver Moon itself repulsed the supernatural domain?

Various thoughts rose in Li Hao’s mind. This might be why it was so hard to cross over in the province, yet it was relatively easy to become a martial master. That was why it’d been a sacred land of the martial world back in those days.

The young man lifted his head to the sky. He could not see the diagram of the eight trigrams here, but he suddenly thought of it. Very rarely did supernaturals appear in Silver City. Although there were few supernaturals to begin with in the overall province, there was a pitiful number of native supernaturals in the enormous Silver City with its one million strong population. He’d never heard of a Heaven Favored coming from Silver City, and any supernaturals it did have was transferred from elsewhere.

The longer one stayed in Silver City, the harder it was to ascend. Liu Long, Liu Yan... These were the leaders of martial dao in Silver City, yet it was exceedingly difficult for them to ascend. Only Yun Yao had done so—she was the only one to do so in the team.

Some speculations burgeoned in Li Hao’s mind. Did the lack of supernaturals in Silver City have to do with the diagram? A suppression? Or a sealing? Or some other reason?

Wang Henggang and the other martial powerhouses had had to leave Silver City and utilize mysterious power to make the crossover. Did Liu Long’s continuous failure have to do with a lack of mysterious power or... that it was just impossible?

One could not ascend in Silver City!

Li Hao turned to Liu Long as these thoughts swirled in his mind. “Chief, have there ever been Heaven Favored in Silver City?”

“Huh?” Liu Long jerked and thought for a bit. “I don’t think so, there’s too few of us in the city. It’s not that easy with just one million in Silver City.”

“Are there very few Heaven Favored to go around?” Li Hao asked. “If there’s not even one in a million, then it’d take several million or ten million to produce one. Is there only a dozen Heaven Favored in Silver Moon?”

“There are very few in Silver Moon, period!” Liu Long shook his head. “Hong Qing already mentioned that Silver Moon is a barren landscape for supernaturals. We did have some Heaven Favored at first, but the older generation of martial masters killed them. There have barely been any since, but quite a few from the outside. There’s more elsewhere, we have too few!”

There are very few in Silver Moon!

Li Hao suddenly thought of the ruins of the stone door. It’d rejected the power of the scarlet shadow, but they hadn’t tested it with mysterious power. Both he and Yuan Shuo were martial masters, so they didn’t have mysterious power to test it with.

The young man put a lid on his rampaging thoughts for the moment.